Amazingly, at least to this reviewer, the first film in the popular Bourne franchise was released 20 long years ago. A fresh-faced Matt Damon (then aged 32) played the titular character (real name David Webb), a memory loss-afflicted master assassin with more than a little red in his ledger.
In Robert Ludlum’s Bourne novels JB is masquerading as a hit man to infiltrate a terrorist cell, unlike the film series, where he actually is former assassin with many kills.
Richard Chamberlain (The Thorn Birds) played an older, less intense Bourne (he was 54 at the time), hewing closer to the novel in a largely forgotten 1988 TV movie, which is currently available to watch on YouTube.
In the film (as in the novel) Bourne pursues the real-life Carlos the Jackal (Yorgo Voyagis); a similar plot device was used in The Assignment (1997) where Aiden Quinn plays a US navy lieutenant who bears an unfortune resemblance to notorious terrorist (Quinn also plays The Jackal).
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